Sunday, 9 November 2014

Day 9: A New Kind Of Love

Welcome to our 25 day Advent study and Advent Calendar which we are
preparing through November to be able to use in December. Each day has
a Bible Study related to Advent, a worship video, a passage telling the
Christmas Story and a Bible verse to ise on your Advent Calendar. You
can download the PDF with today's study and verses here.

Advent Study“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11

What a wonderful prayer is found in this verse. Yet I expect it is extremely common, if not universal, for pastors to pray this same prayer concerning the people in their congregation.

It might appear strange to worldly ears to pray that love would abound in knowledge and insight because the world equates love with a feeling. But unfortunately, feelings are fickle and when pleasure turns to pain and joy to sorrow, the world would abandon love for something more pleasurable. Praise God that in Jesus we have a Savior who continued to love even when those who took no small pleasure in torturing Him put Him to death.

The second half of the verse is equally foreign to our ears, though equally wonderful in Jesus Christ. The blamelessness for which Paul prayed comes through faith in Jesus, not because we somehow deserved what was best and took care of it! For our sinfulness condemns us, and the only way we will be found blameless in the day of Christ is if we have His pardon and forgiveness. Jesus said, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent” (John 6:29). He won complete forgiveness and salvation for us – all the glory and praise goes to God.

Prayer
Lord, thank you for loving me so much that you became a man willing to die for my sins, bridging the gap between me and You God. Amen.

Ponder
This verse is a prayer asking for wisdom and understanding in our loving. The Bible is the best source for that knowledge. How do you let the Bible affect how you love others?

Worship Video

Christmas StoryMatthew 1:18-21
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Bible VerseMatthew 1:21
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”